The world's most expensive cocktail: Restaurant manager Cesare Papagna with the cocktail

If you’re looking for an after work tipple, you might want to steer clear of new London restaurant Gigi’s – unless you have a spare £8,888 to hand.

The Italian restaurant, which opened in Mayfair last week, has created the world’s most expensive cocktail, beating the former titleholder (Melbourne’s Winston cocktail) by the best part of a thousand pounds.

The cocktail, imaginitively named The Gigi, was created especially for actress and singer Grace Jones. It's made with vintage champagne (1990s vintage Cristal nonetheless), a rare Armagnac brandy that pre-dates the Boer War (1888 Samalens Vieille Relique Vintage Bas Armagnac) and ‘lashings’ of gold leaf. Ah, so there is actual gold in there.

The result? Well, to those in the know it tastes of ‘liquid gold’, apparently.